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Topic Review (Newest First)

09-28-2015, 03:15 PM

Unregistered

same issues

hello.

I have a 2004 BMW X3. I also notice a change in the ride between 0-20mph. It is bumpy and uncomfortable for driver and passengers.

I don't believe anyone else could come up with a reason other than "test drive" better. Well we drove the car for 2 hours and didn't notice it until a week later after the car was purchased and driven off the lot. If anyone has an idea of why this happens please let me know. If it's petty insults or comments.... Keep them to yourself.

Thank you

03-07-2010, 01:11 PM

fletch

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

if you don't like it, buy a new rig!

03-04-2010, 12:04 PM

Bill-X3-owner

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

I made the same switch from sedans to SUVs a while ago and had the same problem. In my experience it's not a design issue, it's getting used to be higher up (you get a little more "play" - this is just physics). I remember feeling very unstable co pared to theower riding sedan I had before. It was almost like learning to drive again. Once I adapted to the different driving perspective and physics (didn't take long). The feeling of a sloppy, swooshy (sorry I don't have better terms) ride went away and was completely enjoyable.

SUVs are very different beasts from lower riding coupes and sedans, and if you haven't had much experience with them, it can be unnerving at first. I just got my X3, find it enjoyable, having come from driving a Jeep grand Cherokee ( great car - felt it time to step up though).

I know this is coming in way after your post, but I hope it helps, that any issues with the car are gone, and wishing you all the best. Good luck :).

03-04-2010, 11:49 AM

Bill-X3-owner

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

09-19-2009, 12:06 PM

ppxyz

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

No, the blame is entirely on me for buying this ***** of **** BMW X3 for the over priced, undulating, jerky, ***** of **** driving that it is. I never said that I was not a complete and utter idiot for believing BMW's glossy garbage and plunking down my money for this ***** of ****.

It is my stupid mistake. I should have taken it for an entire week's test drive (do they do that?) and insisted then on taking 10 more X3's for equally long test drives just to make sure the one I bought doesn't have this defect, er, feature. I mean, for the price and the image of the company, it was my responsibility to test out every X3 to make sure the one I purchased was acceptable.

It is, however, BMW's responsibility for making a car that is so unstable in its cabin that it takes an imperfection in the road and translates it into an undulating movement instead of stopping it in its tracks.

I could have purchased any number of cars from any number of manufacturers that had a more stable ride for half the price. The only reason to purchase a BMW and pay the premium and put up with the iffy reliability and expensive repairs is for the DRIVING.

This X3 doesn't have the driving. I am going to christen it the vomitcomet.

09-19-2009, 11:27 AM

div2002

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

Be mad all you want, but i would think the success of the X3 means that there's quite an audience that likes what you don't like. Wow, there's people with different opinions and tastes. Be mad, be angry all you want, but in my opinion, if you look in the mirror, you'd find who would share a little of the blame.

09-19-2009, 03:56 AM

ppxyz

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

Yes it happens with other people in the car.

What again is your vested interest in my opinion of my car?

It rides like heck. Since you have never been in my car, you do not own an X3 and you have never ridden in or driven one, why are you concerned about my opinion of my car again?

09-18-2009, 09:48 PM

div2002

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

Does it only happen when you are alone in the car, or have other people substantiated your findings?
(Cue Twilight Zone theme music)

09-18-2009, 09:39 PM

ppxyz

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

Still not talking about HARSH. I am not talking about SPORTY or STIFF or any of these adjectives that BMW enthusiasts like to throw out as exemplary features of BMWs.

I am talking about a nausea-inducing rolling, rocking, bucking, undulating ride. A stiff and sporty ride does not cause nausea for the driver when you are going straight at moderate speeds on a paved road.

This is not about windy mountain roads at high speeds. This is about the trip to the store.

Again, it is INTERMITTENT. I do not know when it will occur although I have narrowed it down to paved roads, no apparent major defects or objects like potholes or manhole covers or grates taken at speeds less than 35 mph.

Since the problem is INTERMITTENT but PERSISTENT it can show up or not at any time and is still with me. It did not show up in the test drive. I would love a test drive with BMW like the one GM is having. Buy it and give it back if you don't like it in 30 days...30 more days to return it.

Now that is a test drive...I would be returning it pretty soon.

09-18-2009, 09:10 PM

div2002

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

The bottom line is that the X3 is simply a harsher ride than you may have expected or wanted. Buyer's remorse and staying away from all BMW's is by and large your choice, but in my opinion, silly if you didn't do your homework with proper test drives on good roads as well as bad. I wouldn't buy a a 7 series expecting the ride of a 3 series, and just because you had a great opinion of a 5 series, still doesn't excuse your lack of test driving an X3 fully.

09-18-2009, 07:05 PM

ppxyz

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

I forgot to add that I am the very unhappy owner of a brand new 2009 X3. I have no affiliation, other than being a long time customer, of BMW and have no affiliation in any way, shape or form with any other car company Lexus included.

I have owned other cars from other companies.

I have test driven and picked up brochures and ridden in other cars from other companies. I have commented on other cars from other companies.

Some people just go around complaining about those who complain...why is that? Why is someone going around other BMW X3 forums and gathering information on who is complaining about what? Who in the world does that kind of thing?

09-18-2009, 06:51 PM

ppxyz

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

Do you even own a BMW X3 yourself? Have you ever even driven one?

Do you have a problem with free speech? Do you have a problem with my expressing my honest opinion of a car? If so, what problem is that?

The ride is something awful in the X3. That is my opinion. What is yours or do you not have anything useful to say.

I am quite sure that you have never owned an X3 and have never even driven an X3 as your post has no information in it.

09-18-2009, 05:02 PM

div2002

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

This lady is spamming every E83 board she can find; I think she works for Lexus.

09-17-2009, 06:16 PM

ppxyz

Re: Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

Continuing to drive the BMW X3 and still experiencing the same rocking, rolling, bumpy, horrible, horrendous, awful ride.

What a disaster of a purchase. I will NEVER buy another BMW and I will tell everyone I know of how awful this purchase has been.

I no longer trust anything BMW makes because they made a car like the X3 and think it is acceptable in its form. Whom do they think they are kidding?

It rides like a low end *.*.*. instead of a $45,000 SAV. If you want a ride that will jolt you around the cabin in an unpredictable fashion and want to pay that much for it then you, too, can feel as stupid and as taken and as deceived as I do.

You have been warned and will continue to be warned.

09-14-2009, 02:43 AM

ppxyz

Re: Sport package?

No sport package, standard wheels at 32 psi.

I read from someone else's post that the sport package is stiff but not bouncy. In other words, no one is being lifted off of their seats or bounced side to side at low speeds on normal roads by the rocking of the car. Things are not jumping up off the cargo floor and hitting the ceiling at less than 20 mph due to the bounciness.

It seems to me that a sport package would keep the car together and not have the car bouncing around and feeling out of control. I have never driven the car with the sport package so I have no frame of reference.

I am not sure about everyone's terminology when explaining their cars.

This explains it better...pogoing. Yet another review I didn't see. Pogoing means up and down but mine goes bouncing around in all directions. It comes as a surprise as I can't seem to anticipate it by looking at the road ahead.

"BMW’s usually have a firm to stiff suspension set up. I’m usually good with that, and prefer a firm ride to a spongy one, but it just doesn’t work in the X3. The ride quality on smooth highway roads was acceptable, but on ordinary city and suburban streets, every bump, and undulation caused to car to pogo up and down for several seconds after riding over the dip. The buckboard ride got old after a short time. It wasn’t as nervous and bouncy as a trail-rated Jeep Rubicon, but it was definitely more truck-like than car-like.

That being said, you’d expect the compensation for the harsh ride would mean flat cornering, but the X3 had about the same amount of body roll as other SUVs, like the Hyundai Santa Fe, and much more than the Infinity EX35. "

If you have the sport package, welcome to the world of: That's the way it is.

If you don't, there have been a couple of instances of dealers forgetting to remove the shipping blocks from the coil springs. Check front and rear.

09-12-2009, 09:17 PM

ppxyz

Brand new X3: Extremely bumpy ride! Help!

- First try at posting ended up with a database error. If this is repetitious - sorry!

=====
Oh my. Brand new X3, extremely bumpy ride at low speeds (sub 30 MPH) with lots of fore and aft, side to side rolling after going over very minor indentations on normal, paved streets.

Is this normal?

It is amazing! It wasn't noticed in any of the test rides but it became apparent after we brought it home.

This is very disappointing. We have been reading reviews and there is no mention of this although someone said that on bigger bumps it seems as if the wheels are glued to the car.

Is this a suspension problem? Is this a design defect? Is this something they designed in on purpose? This isn't my first BMW so it isn't the road hugging ride or stiff suspension, this is something else. We are new to SUVs having had only sedans in the past so it may be an issue of getting used to the taller ride.

Does anyone else have this problem or are we just being overly sensitive because we are paying too much attention to a brand new car?